The classical aluminum construction is still broadly applied in aircraft construction as is the aluminum composite construction. Herein fuselage sections are formed of at least two prefabricated (half) shell segments which are joined together while forming longitudinal seams. The individual prefabricated shell segments are formed with an outer skin that is curved once or twice and is stiffened on its inner side with stringers running in longitudinal direction of the aircraft and frames running transverse to this. The bonding of all these components is predominantly accomplished by a plurality of rivets. The production of the longitudinal seams between the shell segments to be joined together requires an overlapping of sufficient size between the outer skins of the shell segments to allow riveting. This overlapping provides a statically unnecessary doubling of the material thickness of the outer skin, thus increasing the weight.
The fuselage cell of an aircraft is formed of several prefabricated fuselage sections. For this purpose, at least two fuselage sections are joined together along a circumferential cross seam running transverse to the longitudinal axis of the aircraft. In the area of the cross seam, the outer skins of the fuselage sections are butt-joined such that for the riveting on the inner side transverse butt straps are necessary that extend from both sides of the cross seam. The stringers of each fuselage section that are facing each other in the area of the cross seam are coupled to each other by stringer couplers. In the area of the cross seam, additional connection corners (so-called “clips”) are provided if necessary which are used for the connection and support of ring frames in the area of the cross seam. The connection corners may also be formed as integral portions of the stringer couplers. The transverse butt straps, the stringer couplers and the connection corners in the transverse butt area are not necessarily required to provide static stability, but they are indispensable for the creation of the riveting connections, so that unnecessary additional weight is added to the fuselage cell structure of the aircraft by these connection elements.